what are you afraid of?
by Arlaxxer
Summary: "Booker, are you afraid of god?" "No, but I'm afraid of you... and something else."


**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **what have i done to booker

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"Argh, it's a bee, I hate these things!"

Why does Elizabeth always think trouble when she sees a bee? In truth, she doesn't know, perhaps it has something to do with her getting stung by one at the age of five and no one was around in her tower (not even Songbird was there that day) to help her that day. She had been left to endure the vicious pain the whole night and could barely sleep because of it.

"Oh Jeez, just kill it!"

Booker didn't seem like the type who would be afraid of a petty little bee. Elizabeth felt a bit ashamed of herself. He could kill countless amounts of enemies and show not the slightest sign of fear, yet Elizabeth was so scared she barely knew what to do. And all because of one little bee.

"No, it'll sting me!"

"Elizabeth!"

"I have a better idea!"

Stuck in an elevator with barely enough room to not scrape elbows with Booker, Elizabeth choose to get rid of the bee in a way that she saw perfectly fit. Open a tear into another room with a window that was wide open and let the bee fly out on its own. Perfect solution and no merciless bee-killing! Elizabeth was content with that. She wasn't born to take anyone's life.

Booker, however, did _not _like whatever the hell it was that was in front of him.

"Woah, what the hell is that, Elizabeth?!"

Elizabeth, with her lack of communication with anyone that was not songbird, could only try to explain it in an obscure way that only she knew what meant. And obscure talking was but another thing Booker really hated about normal people.

"It's a tear."

"What the fu—what is a tear?"

"It's like a window… umm… a window to another world. Most of the times they're dull as dishwater, but sometimes I see something amazing. And then I pull it through. Like that."

With the last two words of that sentence, she picked up a rose from the flowerbed at the window and placed it in her hair, just above her ear. Booker thought that it fitted her, but also felt awkward thinking like that about a girl at her age.

Luckily, something screamed very loudly and brought Booker's mind to something else. _Unluckily,_ something was screaming and he recognized that high-pitched screech. Almost instantaneously, he began yelling at Elizabeth.

"Close it. ELIZABETH, CLOSE IT!"

"I'm trying!"

The Songbird was flying towards them at an unbelievably high speed. Booker didn't feel scared, but he did feel the tension rising. He raised his shotgun slightly and stood his ground, ready to fight the beast. But lucky for him, Elizabeth managed to close the tear. Songbird's head was no more than a meter away from the window as it closed.

Booker was silent as the elevator finally reached their destination; or so he thought. He finally got outside and groaned loudly when he saw the skylines that led to the Hall of Heroes. He groaned loud enough for the guards to hear him and charge at him. But he still wasn't scared, and took them all on. In the end, he and Elizabeth made it out alive.

"Booker, do you ever feel scared?"

That question had come so abruptly that it took Booker a few seconds to process whatever the hell it was she had asked him about.

"No."

"Why don't you?"

"When I hit puberty, I realized there was nothing to be scared of. I guess you could say I 'grew out of that sissy nonsense'. Come on, we gotta search for useful things before we go on."

After a little bit of scrounging, Elizabeth emerged from the pub that she had been searching through and walked over to Booker with her hands locked behind her back.

"Nothing useful, but I did find something."

She showed her hand that was holding on something and extended it towards Booker. He squinted and realized what it was she was holding. To Elizabeth's surprise, he flinched and frowned; she thought he'd maintain the same indifferent expression he had been carrying the whole time they had been together.

"Get that thing away from me."

The little eight-legged animal crawled around in Elizabeth's hand. It already seemed to like her a lot. Elizabeth chuckled slightly, and she didn't know if she chuckled because of Booker's reaction, or the tiny animal tickling her hand.

"What's the matter, Booker? It's just a spider. I found him in the pub over there; I didn't even know spiders were able to survive high altitudes!"

"Elizabeth, get, that, thing, away, from, me."

"What happened to the 'I'm not scared of anything' Booker?"

"I'm not scared; I just don't like those little insects."

"They're not insects, they're arachnids. And I can see the word 'scared' written all over your face."

"At least I'm not afraid of petty bees."

"Bees sting, spiders are harmless."

She was just teasing him now, and he knew that.

"Whatever. I'll kill that little bastard if he comes too close."

"You'd kill anyone if they were just less than two meters away from you."

"I haven't killed you, have I?"

"Aw, is that a compliment?"

"I didn't say that."

"I'll take it as a compliment, then."

**- LATER, ON THE WAY TO THE HAND OF THE PROPHET -**

"Booker, are you afraid of god?"

"No, but I'm afraid of you… and spiders."

Elizabeth reached into her pocket and pulled the little bastard spider she had kept since the Hall of Heroes.

"… Did you really have to bring him here?"

"Yep."

"Way to ruin a moment."

And so they both laughed slightly before realizing that the barge had finally docked at the lower deck of The Hand of The Prophet.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **comments and reviews make me both happy and a better author


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